Why Are Apprenticeships in Decline?

4/28/2014 10:50AM

It seems like a perfect solution: employers need qualified employees. Apprenticeships offer an opportunity for workers to get the exact skills they need. So why are apprenticeships in decline? Lauren Weber explains on MoneyBeat. Photo: Getty Images.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... in mm mm mm mm ... it seems like a perfect solution employers need qualified employees ... apprenticeship offer an opportunity for workers get the exact skills they need ... to water apprenticeships in decline is this is part of the special ... Wall Street Journal reports section in the paper Lauren Weber is here what the story ... on the ... story really good story on apprenticeships learned very interesting ... don't hear too much about them ... but maybe they should be hearing more about that ... yes it's that it's an excellent solution to problem that ... most employers complain about which is that they can find at workers with the skills that they need exact match the skill right ... now apprenticeships I think this is certainly a perception that they are ... blue collar training as ... ah ... is is is moving out of that is it not moving and that why is the ... place slowly moving out of that mainly because of innovative thinkers in certain states that are trying to be very proactive about developing internships interesting Lee South Carolina's doing some of the most ... on new and interesting things with their apprenticeships pair ... bringing this model to feel like health care with certified nursing assistants which is a low wage hour the job ... they're also bringing it CIT workers and computer systems administrators which ... him anywhere many employers complain that they can't find people with the right technology skills this is a great way to do that ... so there are people out there trying to think about new ways to use the apprenticeship model which is basically ... earn and learn see her working you're earning a living you're also doing on the job training and classroom training at the same time ... so we may start to see this expanding the Obama administration also has taken an interest in just about a hundred million dollars towards ... grants for organizations that will create these programs ... now ... it seems that we want the into thinking that we cannot separate unique employers need your employees need to purge the program ... if you're trying to get more sort of high tech type people doing these affection for what he's moving into the schools are they moving into pleased with the students all our while to some extent all of these programs require there is a lot of infrastructure that's that's needed ... you have partnerships with community colleges that's the way it mostly works ... in the US we do more apprenticeships after that ... Mr. the postsecondary arrange we don't tend to start kids are in high school where isn't in Germany which is known for its apprenticeship model they do start kids are much younger on these tracks what's interesting is that in in the U S we are very un here for good reasons we're in a real interest in ... the concept of equality ... and as one in apprenticeship expert told me that means work there's a lot of resistance the envy of tracking and people so im putting somebody um a college track adding another person money ... and tradesmen track or something like that so that's partly why I really haven't taken taken together the two leaders saying at the beginning about the perception of what it produces ... here are the problems of the protection ... while there are in that sick like I said here you need to have a certain an infrastructure built in so setting up a program like this can take a fair amount of time in investments but once you have it working in your youth you haven't fully seeing the benefits that they get from it ... aam you know and employers as well for one for instance ... there is evidence that sound their higher retention rates for apprentices because ... the employees can see that their employer is putting a lot of ... investment in them so they're more willing to stay longer ... ALM so ... you know there are in their upfront costs but on the other hand there are back and a lot of back and then it's ... now eleven he took a lot of folks for this story he she ... more enthusiasm or more reticent see what you see ad BC with is that so the deal but the trend in Europe ... whether the employer's I spoke to that are using this model are very happy with it because like I said they're getting a real match it for what they what they need ... in many cases the Lincoln South Carolina our Wisconsin ... there and these are players entering areas where it's difficult to find the highly trained employees that they need and so being able to bring people and and and ... and train them up exactly you neratinib and is a great benefit to them ... on them but there is still a lot of resistance it's that it's the image of the Union at the mention of the aam ... you know that blue collar jobs or so once I think some of that can be overcome and people start to see you ... that you can apply the model to so many different occupations I think it will ... it might take hold more in and that will be ... a benefit for both employers and employees are ... Lauren Weber great stuff think you're a thank you ...